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September 11, 2019 @
5:16 am

I discovered the bookclub we will talk about today purely by accident. I was looking at the website of my local art museum, the Speed Art Museum, because I was buying tickets for the Toni Morrison documentary that aired this summer, The Pieces I Am, at the Speed’s attached cinema. While on the website I saw a listing for the Speed Reading Club, a funny play on words title for their bookclub sponsored by the museum. My interest was piqued. What kind of bookclub would it be. I contacted today’s guest, Shannon Karol, Director of Education and she was so eager to tell me about the club and invited me to sit in on a session. There I also met Cheryl Sweeney, a dedicated regular member of the group. Shannon and Cheryl talk to carrie and I about how the club integrates books and art at the museum, why reading a novel can make viewing art less intimidating, which book/art pairing involves a former president solving mysteries, and which gallery in the museum makes all the schoolchildren imagine Harry Potter. Our discussion today just reminds me that visual art and the art of words on the page are just two sides of the same coin. Its a day at the museum on Perks.

September 4, 2019 @
6:11 am

Most avid readers at some time or another have dreamed of working in a small neighborhood bookstore. Our guest today, Sam Miller, has done just that for over 20 years in different parts of the country, from Alaska to Philadelphia. She has now set roots at Carmichael’s Books in Louisville KY. This year she championed a 20-year-old book she loves, Jim the Boy by Tony Earley, and has been a superwoman handselling it to everyone she knows. In fact, Carmichael’s is planning an event for this book and author on September 28 from 3-5 pm, to celebrate how it has touched local readers’ hearts. Sam shares with us what surprising genre is an up-and-coming star in their stacks, what book she reads over and over again, and which author’s talk was so magical, customers continue talking about it a year later. It’s a great day to nerd out about the perks of working in an indie bookstore.